Gandhi alleged that the move would undermine the reservation system for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). He claimed that the government was "openly snatching away" their rights.

The former Congress president also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "attacking the Constitution" by recruiting public servants through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) rather than the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The controversy surrounds the recruitment of 45 specialists to key posts in central ministries, typically held by officers of all-India services -- the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) -- and Group A services, among others.

"Reservation of SC, ST and OBC classes is being openly snatched away by recruiting through lateral entry on important posts in various ministries of the central government," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

"I have always said that the underprivileged are not represented in all the country's top posts, including the top bureaucracy. Instead of improving it, they are being pushed further away from the top posts through lateral entry," he said.

"This is a robbery of the rights of talented youth preparing for UPSC and an attack on the concept of social justice including reservation for the underprivileged," Gandhi said.

The SEBI is a vivid example of what representatives of a few corporates will do by sitting on decisive government posts, where for the first time a person from the private sector was made the chairperson, Rahul said in an apparent reference to the conflicts of interest allegations against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch.

The INDIA bloc will strongly oppose this "anti-national step" that hurts both the administrative structure and social justice, Gandhi said.

"Privatisation of the IAS is Modi's guarantee for ending reservation," he said.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) posted 45 positions on Saturday, 10 as joint secretaries and 35 as directors/deputy secretaries, to be filled through lateral entry on a contract basis.